Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I'm staying with an aunt in Germany at the moment and heading out for UCU on Sunday. But while I'm here, I decided to do a little sightseeing and shopping. Why would I decide to shop in a small town like Boblingen, instead of going to Stuttgart, a few km away? Because I don't have a personal car. Or the skills to drive one.So this morning I head happily to the bus station. It was sunny, there was no litter on the ground. There was a marked path for bicycles, which especially made me feel good to see. People were minding their own business, in a non-smelly way. And I didn't even have to hold my small backpack under my armpit to protect it!I waited for about 20 minutes in an empty bus stop thinking "great! maybe I'll get to sit down on the bus!". Well of course the bus was equally empty. There was me, the driver and a guy with headphones. Big headphones. In a big bus. You get the picture.

However, the point of starting this post was to express my frustration as to the fact that in spending 7 hours of my life in the commercial centre of Boblingen, I have only found ONE English-speaking person. And I don't mean I excluded everyone who couldn't explain what the origin of the Bretzel is. I mean I excluded everyone who didn't know what 'restroom', 'bathroom' and 'exit' mean. I am not joking. Also, I didn't approach anyone over the age of 25.How is this possible?Bit of a riddle to me, but in a country where you have to seriously search, I mean really invest resources into finding a movie that isn't dubbed in German, I suppose it shouldn't be that big of a surprise. However remarkable I think this country is, and I do... being 20, well fed, well dressed and reasonably well educated, living in a leading western country and not being able to answer "How are you?" ( - "Fine.") is just more than I was prepared for.

But thumbs-up for the beautiful church in Stuttgart (took the photo yesterday).